One of Central Pennsylvania’s most versatile short-track racers, Bobby Gerhart Sr. was a smooth and consistent race-car driver who could handle a dirt-track Modified stock-car, Late Model stock-car or Sprint Car with equal ease.
The Lebanon, Pennsylvania-based Gerhart began his racing career in the 1950s and his first rides were in the No. 2 early 1930s Ford coupe in the Flathead Division. But when the old Ford V-8s were supplanted by the more-powerful overhead-valve V-8-engined race cars Gerhart went with the flow and continued his winning ways.
In Modified competition, Gerhardt was certainly best known for his front-running efforts at Pennsylvania’s half-mile dirt Susquehanna Speedway Park in Newberrytown, and at the old half-mile Reading Fairgrounds and Penn National Speedway in Grantville.
At Susquehanna, the likeable Gerhart’s winning ways included those in his No. 2 1935 Chevrolet two-door sedan that was known as “Baby Bonnie.” But he might best be remembered for his drives in: the white No. 54 1936 Chevrolet coupe that was fielded by A.T. Consoli; his own blue No. 5 1936 Chevrolet coupe and his white No. 5 Gremlin; and the red, white and blue No. 29 Pinto and Gremlin that were fielded by EMPA Hall of Fame member Bob Weikert.
The winner of 41 races at Reading, Gerhart drove the No. 54 ATCO machine to the 1969 & 1970 championships at the famed Fairgrounds with master mechanic Davey Brown Sr. doing the tuning on the car’s 4-barrel-carbureted engine. He also used the car to set the track’s all-time record for a 30-lap feature race – 13 minutes and 23.30 seconds on August 29, 1969 – and for a 50-lap main event – 21 minutes and 39.70 seconds – which he set on May 31, 1968, when he won the “INDE 50.”
In 1972, Gerhart bought out the Consoli operation, repainted the car blue, renumbered it ‘5’ and just kept on inning. Then, in 1975, he brought out a new Gremlin-bodied car powered by another carbureted Chevrolet engine and he never missed a beat with his top-running efforts.
However, Modified racing was only a part of Gerhart’s career as he was also a rather accomplished Sprint Car and Late Model racer.
The 1967 Susquehanna Super Sprint Car Champion with another carbureted mount tuned by Brown, Gerhart had 19 victories at the red-clay track where he had seven-consecutive winning seasons (1962-1968). He also won four Sprint Car and seven Late Model races at Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway.
Gerhart – who drove the No. 77 Sprint Car of EMPA Hall of Fame member Al Hamilton in 1968 – also won eight Sprint Car races at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pennsylvania and his résumé includes a win at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
When Gerhart retired from racing after some 30 years he devoted much of his time to his son Bobby Jr.’s buddy Modified racing career and to that of his son Billy who was more interested in the mechanical aspects of the sport.
Then, when Bobby Jr. began his Automobile Racing Club of America career, the family operation found Bobby Sr. serving as an important part of the overall operation and Billy serving as his brother’s crew chief.
Unfortunately, however, Bobby Gerhart Sr. was killed in an automobile accident on May 24, 2004, in Hershey, Pennsylvania. But his legacy lives on not only in the minds of those that saw him race but for those in the modern day as Bobby Jr. – a seven-time (1999, 2002, 2005-207 & 2010-2011) winner of the ARCA 200 at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida – competes in the ARCA Series using his father’s old No. 5.
